Re: rm && opensolaris && ntfs-3g problem

[Philip Rowlands]

On Sun, 10 Aug 2008, Andras Barna wrote:

> on opensolaris (update 94) can't remove recursively directories.
>
> @osol /ntfs: /usr/gnu/bin/mkdir -p t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t//t/t///t//t/t/t/
> @osol /ntfs: /usr/gnu/bin/rm --version|head -1
> rm (GNU coreutils) 6.7
> @osol /ntfs: rm -rf t
> rm: cannot remove directory `t': Directory not empty
> @osol /ntfs: rm -r t
> @osol /ntfs: ls t
> ls: cannot access t: No such file or directory

This example shows the default "rm" (PATH not shown) failing to remove a 
directory tree, but succeeding on the second attempt.


> @osol /ntfs: /usr/gnu/bin/mkdir -p t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t//t/t///t//t/t/t/
> @osol /ntfs: /data/a/bin/rm --version|head -1
> rm (GNU coreutils) 6.12
> @osol /ntfs: /data/a/bin/rm -rf t
> @osol /ntfs: echo $?
> 0
> @osol /ntfs: ls t
> t
> @osol /ntfs: /data/a/bin/rm -r t
> @osol /ntfs: ls t
> t
> @osol /ntfs: /data/a/bin/rm -r t
> @osol /ntfs: echo $?
> 0
> @osol /ntfs: ls t
> t
> @osol /ntfs: /usr/bin/rm --version
> /usr/bin/rm: illegal option -- version
> usage: rm [-fiRr] file ...
> @osol /ntfs: /usr/bin/rm -r t
> @osol /ntfs: ls t
> ls: cannot access t: No such file or directory

This example show GNU coreutils rm v6.12 failing to remove a directory 
tree; even though the exit status is 0, not all files are deleted. This 
is a bug.


> @osol /ntfs: /usr/gnu/bin/mkdir -p t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t//t/t///t//t/t/t/
> @osol /ntfs: /usr/bin/rm -rf t
> @osol /ntfs: ls t
> ls: cannot access t: No such file or directory

This example shows /usr/bin/rm successfully deleting a directory tree.

To determine whether this is a bug with GNU rm or interactions between 
your kernel and the NTFS filesystem, it's necessary to trace the system 
calls and their return values - hopefully your solaris system has truss 
installed, in which case you could try to repeat the failing commands 
given above like so:

$ truss -o rm-trace.txt /path/to/rm -r t

If you are able to interpret the output of truss, please try to identify 
where GNU rm and solaris rm differ in their system calls, specifically 
which files are removed with unlink(2). If not, then please just attach 
the truss output, ideally compressed.


Cheers,
Phil